Chapter 10
Sell it Like a Mango
The Donald Kelly Story
 |
| Donald C. Kelly Founder of The Sales Evangelist Podcast |
Given my own poor personal track record with SALES over the years—as highlighted in Chapter 5, Career Crucibles—I greatly admire and venerate the tremendous skills, talents, and success that Donald has developed and earned in this area, which has so consistently been a weakness of mine.
 |
| Turquoise ocean waters off the coast of Jamaica. |
However, like most successful entrepreneurs, Kelly's journey was not quick or easy.
 |
| Street-side Convenience Store in Jamaica |
But, in the end, his commitment to SAL-oriented principles and practices—synergized with Serendipitous grace and mercy all along the way—empowered him to achieve things and become someone beyond what he had ever imagined growing up.
For Kelly, the way to earning his own money usually involved sales work of one kind or another. There were, after all, many opportunities for persons of all ages to sell basic goods—such as mangoes and other fresh fruit—in his home country of Jamaica. He had grown up observing these local salespeople ply their trade openly near his boyhood home.
As he began carefully observing these salespersons, he discovered that some were better at sales than others, and he started to notice the differentiating qualities and techniques that existed between more successful salespersons and less successful salespersons. He came to realize that if he could sell a product or service, he would always have the money he needed to survive and eventually thrive in life.
Before his Dreyfoos days, however, Donald faced a grave obstacle in middle school that served as a life-defining and life-changing moment for him. This difficulty had the potential to derail his growing dreams and ambitions, and how he chose to respond to it would prove crucial to his future.
As a young teenager, he had gotten involved with an at-risk group of friends from his neighborhood in West Palm Beach. One afternoon, they were loitering on the edge of a man's property. They did not mean any harm. One of his friends was just trying to spend time with a girl he liked. However, the homeowner impugned the boys' motives, accused them of trying to burglarize his home, and began chasing after them. His other friends managed to escape the man's vigorous pursuit, but he caught hold of Donald's backpack and stopped him in his tracks from behind.
The police were called and Donald was hauled in and charged with attempted robbery for merely being in the wrong place at the wrong time. After being processed and charged at a juvenile detention center in West Palm Beach, Kelly was required to fulfil a quota of community service.
Through his activity in the church, Donald became involved in the Boy Scouts of America program, went camping, and participated in a variety of positive and productive events on Sundays and other days of the week with his newfound friends and leaders from church and scout. His new church family opened Donald's eyes up to possibilities and potential for which he was not even aware. He began to realize that he possessed personal power as a self-action leader to make something special out of his life if he was willing to work hard and pay the price.
High school was especially challenging for Donald, not because he struggled academically, but because his mother was enduring an abusive relationship with his step-dad, the father of his younger sister. Donald describes not being able to sleep whenever his step-dad would come home drunk. One evening, near the end of his junior year, things got out of hand, landing his mother in the hospital and his step-dad in jail.
While it was a blessing to have a respite from his drunkenness and abuse, Donald and his mother, brother, and sister struggled without the income his step-dad contributed to the family from his construction job. Without these funds, and despite his mom's hard work at multiple jobs herself, the family was unable to pay their rent and were evicted from their home.
During his high school years, Donald thrived at Dreyfoos, a public charter school with a specialty in the arts. At Dreyfoos, Donald excelled academically and received opportunities to further refine his growing abilities as a public speaker.
After graduation, Donald decided to give back to God and the Church that had given so much to him throughout his adolescent years. He did so by serving as a full-time, volunteer missionary representing the Church for two (2) years in Detroit, Michigan. In addition to contributing his time freely, he personally earned half the money required to serve. Members of his local congregation contributed the rest on his behalf.
On his mission, "Elder Kelly," as he was known, further developed his growing skills as a communicator, teacher, speaker and leader—skills that would come to define and frame his career path and leadership journey in the future.
When he returned home from his mission, he went to college at |
| Professional phone sales office. |
 |
| Donald Kelly with his Dad in Jamaica |
In his heart, Donald had always wanted to become an entrepreneur—just like his dad in Jamaica—so he decided to pursue the latter opportunity.
Building upon his past successes as a salesman of multiple different products and services, he decided to pioneer his own startup sales training business. It began with a sales training podcast that he named The Sales Evangelist, or TSE for short.
In 2015, Kelly hired TSE's first employee. As the company grew, Donald began to branch out beyond his successful podcast to offer a variety of sales training and consulting services.
By 2020, The Sales Evangelist had grown even larger and was becoming increasingly successful, while concurrently earning praise and recognition in the sales industry. |
| Click HERE to buy a copy of Sell it Like a Mango. |
"If you've ever been to Jamaica, you've seen the bright, colorful carts and roadside stands that offer all kinds of food—from mangoes to watermelons, jackfruit to peanuts—and a variety of clothing and trinkets. Those carts are a pillar of the [Jamaican] economy. For many Jamaicans, that's how you survive. ...
"Most of the food stands, fruit sellers, and trinket peddlers were selling almost identical products ... the fruit might have tasted a little different, but it all came from the same region. So, what made one fruit seller stand out against another? I came to realize that it wasn't necessarily the product that made the difference; it was the seller."
"Success lies in the individual. Those who were successful didn't all look the same. They weren't the same gender or the same age. In fact, sometimes they weren't even the same race. The thing that stood out the most was the fact that they were intentional—they all operated from a strategy." (1)
Kelly spends the remainder of the book equipping would-be salespersons with the techniques, tips, tools, and strategies that have helped him become successful in sales.
Sell it Like a Mango has sold many copies and is currently being used by over 5,000 college students at over 90 different universities across North America.
Click HERE to view Donald Kelly's book, Sell it Like a Mango.
 |
| Donald C. Kelly Sales Consultant & Keynote Speaker |
And boy is he succeeding!
To date, his podcast has attracted nearly 5 million downloads from listeners in 155 different countries. It has also received praise and recognition from publications such as Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes, Success Magazine, HubSpot, Inc. Magazine, The Huffington Post, and the South Florida Business Journal.
Donald has also extensively trained sales professionals in a variety of different formats, including: workshops, online courses, keynote presentations, and classes (as an adjunct professor at his alma mater, Brigham Young University-Idaho).
Along the way, Kelly has been honored by LinkedIn as a Top Voice in Sales and a Top 22 Sales Insider.
Additionally, Salesforce has recognized him as a Top Sales Influencer in 2022, '23, '24, and '25.
A popular keynote speaker, Donald has shared stages with many high profile contemporary speakers, including: Cynthia Barnes, John Barrows, Jeb Blount, Anthony Iannarino, Scott Leese, and Alexine Mudawar. He has also addressed nationwide events hosted by major sales organizations, such as: Salesforce's annual conference, "Dreamforce," and HubSpot's "Inbound Outbound" event.
 |
| Donald Kelly with his Parents in Jamaica. |
In addition to his work with for-profit companies, Donald has also assisted non-profit firms, including: Brigham Young University-Idaho, Cal-Poly University, and the Eastern and Florida Minority Supplier Development Councils.
 |
| The Kelly Family... Donald with his wife, Christina, and their son and daughter. |
Both of these positions are time-intensive service and leadership positions for which Kelly receives zero financial remuneration. But, that is okay with Donald, who considers it a privilege and honor to continue to build the faith of himself and others as he gives back to a Church that has done so much for him. Moreover, he holds in his heart a deep personal conviction that he has a duty and responsibility to pattern his life after the Lord, Jesus Christ, and strive to serve His children whenever he is called upon to do so.
Of all his personal and professional achievements and service, Donald's greatest joys in life come from his marriage to his best friend, Christina, and his young son and baby daughter.
What is next for Donald Kelly?
Only time will tell.
Truly, the sky is the limit for this remarkable human being and self-action leader—a man of great skill and talent—and more importantly, of true character, integrity, and class.
At Freedom Focused, we are honored to hold his life, career, and family up as sterling examples of the positive and desirable fruits of SAL-imbued Serendipity—earned and gifted over the course of a lifetime.
Have you ever been blamed, framed, or punished for something that you did not do? If so, how did you respond to the situation? If you could replay your response today, would you say and do anything differently? Why or why not?
Donald Kelly became a great salesman by spending a lot of time developing his natural gifts for communication and persuasion. What natural gifts or talents do you possess? What are you currently doing to further develop those talents or gifts? Is there anything else you could be doing to develop those gifts?
Sometimes you can expand your opportunities by relocating to a different area. Would you be willing to move to pursue new opportunities? Why or why not?
—Dr. JJ
Author's Note: This is the 488th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 278th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 487 FF Blog Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS
Click HERE to access the FULL TEXT of Dr. JJ's Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection
.........................
Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.
If you liked this blog post, please share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and students—and encourage them to bookmark this blog to access a new FREE article every Wednesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment